Attribution

Attribution starts with a lead, opportunity, or sale and works backward to understand the factors that drove it. These can include marketing and sales efforts, price, competitive activity, and, in some cases, the “base” (which can be thought of as a proxy for brand equity.) It is critical to understand that attribution can be total (the most common, basic approach) or incremental. Total attribution allocates all of the value of the sale to marketing and sales efforts, while incremental attribution allocates a significant portion of value to the base—or what would have happened without marketing.